"Fletch. Good to see you," she remarked with a nod. It looks like an impromptu squad of Freedom City's costumed crusaders had already arrived. Some she recognized; Fletch, obviously, and one of Duncan Summer's kids from the Superhuman First Aid class she taught once a month. "Captain Maddox, whats the sitrep?"

"The problem is," Warp whirled around to face the leather-clad man who'd showed up, "About four thirty in the afternoon, reality will be wiped out and we'll all cease to exist. You can't stay here to worry about a few rich old men and their poker chips. You've got to get the Freedom League, the Atom Family, the United Nations for all I care, just find someone who can figure out how to stop it," she paused for breath, having poured everything out as quickly as possible to try prevent anyone talking over her. "Look, you- I mean, we're heroes, right? Aren't we about saving the world and all that?" Warp eyed the assembled group skeptically.

"Right..." Fletch was initially at a loss for words as the young heroine launched into her impassioned speech. "So... you're saying we shouldn't waste time helping these people?" He looked around at the others, as if appealing for them to reason with her.

He looks to the rest of you. "Does someone wanna tell me why you're not apprehending this criminal? Isn't that what people like you are supposed to do, Fletch, Rescue?" He focuses on the two people he knows best in this situation-though he and Fletch have never met before, its obvious he knows him, and apparently trusts him a little.

He managed to suppress a smile. He knew Maddicks by reputation - a good man, but he'd still be yelling if Fletch had jumped in a time machine and turned up yesterday.

Dani rubbed her temple. Psychics always gave her a mild headache. "Alright, kid I believe you that something's gonna go down, but anyone who dies in the building stays dead even if we save the world. And the faster these criminals go down, the more time we have to tackle your problem. Give us a hand, and I'll vouch for you with the Freedom League," she glanced at Maddox. "Or the cops."

She powered up, lifting into the air and watching the Paradise intensely. "So, what's the plan?"

"If you have a map, I can 'port you inside," Warp offered. "Let's give 'em the surprise of their lives."

"Sounds workable, but we'll need cover as soon as we get inside. If I remember the inside of this place, there should be some fairly sturdy gaming tables and slot machines. Hopefully they're still intact."

He cleared his vocalization chambers and hoped he could make himself understood. Speech was so ... inefficient. "I have communicated with the individuals within the building, advising them of the logic of surrender to the authorities." Indicating a rooftop several buildings over, closer to the casino, the alien scientist continued. "Polymath and Athena are on that rooftop, if memory serves. And it always does, Athena will have tapped into the security camera feeds and should be aware of the interior layout. As for teleportation into the building, there is nothing I can do from the interior that I cannot do from out here. Also consider your irregard for established laws of time and space may be the cause of your initial chrono displacement, and proceed with caution."

"If sacred spaces are spared the ravages of war -- make all places sacred. And if the holy people are to be kept harmless from war -- make all peoples holy." -- Norrin Radd (Silver Surfer: Requiem; J. Michael Straczynski)

Zen_Gypsy wrote:He cleared his vocalization chambers and hoped he could make himself understood. Speech was so ... inefficient. "I have communicated with the individuals within the building, advising them of the logic of surrender to the authorities."

"Well, let's hope they're the rare kind of criminal garbage that listens to logic and well-thought-out arguments, right guy?" He smiled ruefully, always keeping an eye on the building.

He shed his jacket, revealing what looked like some kind of tactical vest underneath, sheaths for his shuriken strapped to his bare forearms. He handed the jacket to a nearby cop.

"Put this somewhere safe, please? It's got my house keys in the pocket."

Shifting his mind back out of the casino's network, Matt noticed that several costumed figures had gathered beside the police cordon on the street below. Two of them were familiar - the green-skinned alien Kaldor, and the thief known as Warp. Er - the cute thief. She didn't look like she was involved in whatever was going on here - worry about her plans, if any, later then. Matt heard Kaldor's voice in his mind, wished for the nth time that he had some way of transmitting back, and descended to join the other heroes on the street, the gentle hum of his antigrav generators barely audible over the hubbub.

Catching the tail end of the conversation, Matt greets Kaldor cordially and quickly introduces himself to the other heroes.

"I'm inside the casino's security cameras. There's a few Thieves' Guild members inside. One of them is Weather Mistress - she's got a miniature Katrina going in there. Five others. They're robbing the patrons now, no serious violence yet, I don't see a threat to life and limb unless due to panic.

Kaldor's started the negotiations - that seems like the right way to go for me, at least until we see how they respond. If we port in or make them feel cornered inside for whatever reason, they might start taking hostages and things could get a lot worse for the civvies."

"Polymath? He's here?" Warp exclaimed a second before said hero came floating down on antigrav jets. From behind her domino mask, Warp did her best to project a look of let's-not-fight-now-explanations-later at him. If she could get Polymath, the hero-doctor woman and Teal on her side, the authorities might have to take her seriously. She just had to deal with this quickly enough that there'd be enough time left to save the universe. Not for the first time, Warp dearly wished she'd learnt how to extend her bubble of accelerated time to others.

"Well the 'criminal garbage' tends to be smarter than you think. Nobody pulls something like this without a getaway plan and you haven't seen what theirs is yet." Idiot, she mentally added. Warp didn't care for whoever was holding up the casino, but Fletch's superior attitude rankled her.

She folded her arms and closed her eyes. "I say we port in and thrash them while they're all distracted and stuff trying to negotiate. Negotiating with your fists, that's the sort of negotiations that actually work."

Warp wrote:"I say we port in and thrash them while they're all distracted and stuff trying to negotiate. Negotiating with your fists, that's the sort of negotiations that actually work."

Gladius was the last to arrive on scene. He had been briefed on the situation, and sorely wished that his MP3 player was equipped with a Radio receiver. Not being currently assigned to an active team kind of made that type of equipment a low priority for most of the students, himself included.

He didn't recognize many of the assembled costumes, but the woman's comment showed inexperience - dangerous inexperience - in his eyes.

"I seem to recall the mention of hostages." he said as he touched down. "But teleporting in - assuming that's what you implied you can do - is a sound idea if we can arrive someplace unseen."

Polymath's his face is unreadable under the smoked visor of his helmet as he listens to Warp and Gladius. "This isn't a hostage situation - yet. It's a robbery. I'm all for taking them down hard, if we have a way to get the civs to safety first. Or, for that matter, if anyone here is good enough to take down six metahuman criminals before any of them gets a shot off. If not, our priority should be preventing this situation from turning violent because that's the best way to avoid civilian casualties."

Matt absentmindedly scans radio traffic in the area as he's speaking. Most importantly, are the criminals inside communicating with each other, or anyone else, by radio? Can he hear anything about what they're planning to do next, whether they have an escape route planned, etc.? Failing that, he listens in on police bands as well. Are the police attempting to negotiate, or planning to?

"Negotiating with your fists, that's the sort of negotiations that actually work."

Kaldor was appalled at the young woman's comment. "I have given the persons within some time to consider their surrender. Surely you do not mean to imply that we should use my negotiations as a deception?" Turning his slender head, he looked about at the assembled individuals. "Negotiations are still our best option, this Weather Mistress seems to be in control, and as such her thoughts should be fairly easy to pick up from the background thought-signal."

OOC: Switching Array to Mind Scan; My Mental sense group is Accurate, and Acute, so I should be able to pick out and identify Weather Mistress' thought pattern. Mind Scan Opposed Effect check vs. Weather Mistress' Will. (1d20+10=27) As a reminder, Legacy's Mind Scan is Subtle (Mental) & Insidious, so she won't be aware of the scan. Trying to pick up her current situation and related memories.

"If sacred spaces are spared the ravages of war -- make all places sacred. And if the holy people are to be kept harmless from war -- make all peoples holy." -- Norrin Radd (Silver Surfer: Requiem; J. Michael Straczynski)

"Sounds like we have a descent plan. Warp teleports us inside, hopefully catching the Guild off-guard. I'll take care of covering the hostages and providing them an exit. Legacy, if you can keep us all connected and informed, I think we're ready to stop them."

"I don't think we should all appear in the same spot. Some should teleport in, and some should come in another way. I can melt the lock on a door and come in that way. Or just fly through a window. The more surprise we can throw at them, the better."

Omega Girl wrote:"Sounds like we have a descent plan. Warp teleports us inside, hopefully catching the Guild off-guard. I'll take care of covering the hostages and providing them an exit. Legacy, if you can keep us all connected and informed, I think we're ready to stop them."

"No. Were you even listening? That's a terrible plan. A good plan would be waiting for negotiation to work and going in only if we know it's not working and the people inside are in immediate danger. Otherwise, going in is making the situation worse. Unless you have some way of guaranteeing no civilians get caught in crossfire?"

OOC wrote:Sorry if this sounds confrontational, but what Rescue said really does sound like she wasn't listening to or is deliberately ignoring what Polymath and Legacy said.

Warp thought for a moment at what Polymath said. The problem was, she wasn't really used to thinking of civilians being in the line of fire as a bad thing. It was usually a good thing in her line of work since it meant not getting shot at by heroes. "Maybe they don't think they'll need any hostages. Hey, Kal." She turned to Legacy. "Think you can see where the civilians and the bad guys in the building are?"

She beamed at the cutie in blue, white and gold who'd just touched down. "I can put you anywhere in the place if I have a map. Something to let me figure distance from here, at least." Warp placed both hands on her hips and regarded the building (now mysteriously covered with frost) warily, wondering if they were being watched, too. "Just for the record, I still think that whupping their butts while they're busy talking is the best idea."

Polymath isn't able to pick up much of anything inside the building-most of the cameras and other listening devices are being damaged by Weather Mistress' storm. The Thieves don't seem to be making any radio transmissions.

While Legacy is able to hone in on Weather Mistress' mind, both she and the others respond to his mental intrusion with the telepathic equivalent of a raised middle finger. He gets the impression that all of them are unstable, but one of them-he can't tell which since he can't put faces to minds yet-is truly insane.

Maddicks is in deep conversation with another officer before he turns to all of you. "We've tried calling them through the Hotel's phones as well as talking to them with bullhorns, but they are apparently ignoring us. Snipers can't see much of anything through the ice," He gestures at the ground floor of Paradise, which looks like more and more like some winter wonderland.

"They're not the kind to hurt bystanders for kicks, but its only a matter of time before they just try to bust out and leave. If and when that happens, my men will do their best, but we won't be much of a match for them-not if all six are in there. So are you going to do something, or just stand around flapping your gums?!" Its clear he's trying to be professional but there's a lot of anger in him-anger at having supers commit a crime in his city, angry at not being able to do anything about without help, angry at Warp's presence, just plain mad.

"Map? Building plans?" Warp asked hopefully. "If I don't know what the inside of the place looks like, all I can do is put you just inside the front door or the other side of a wall. "

"And that's kind of pointless. We're better off busting in from different directions like Firekin said. So, you ready to rumble?" From behind her domino mask, she flashes the heroes a look that clearly says: what, are you scared?

I'm going to assume I didn't roll high enough on Streetwise to find out anything about the bad guys. (Rolled 11)

I've decided that the Accurate on Warp's teleport works by extrapolating distance. i.e. she can teleport blindly x feet in y direction without being able to sense that area, but trying to do so without at least knowing the layout of the place is dangerous enough that she basically can't do it.

"I've got the entire building floorplan in here," Polymath taps the side of his head, "and I'm sure Kaldor can plug your mind into mine if needed, right?" He looks at the green-skinned alien for confirmation.

"I'm ready to rumble but none of us should be going in there without at the least a clear plan for how we are protecting the civilians from danger." He looks at Warp again. "You're fast, right? I mean really fast? How long would it take you to get all the civs out of there? Assuming, of course, that doing something other than beating people up isn't too mundane for you?" His expression is still concealed by his visor but the challenge in his tone is evident.

"And do any of the rest of you have any way of shielding any civs left behind?"